It's in your Blood
by SapphireNight
Summary: Padfoot and Prongs take a step through time, right into Harry's 5th year. This version has been discontinued. Currently rewritten as 'Time Changes'
1. TimeCharmed rings

Hi, this is my first fic I've written, although I'm working on some others at the moment. This was written mainly in the summer holiday, and was on hold for a long while whilst I was at school the last term. I decided to give the story another go, seeing as if I'm going to post it here for you, your gonna want more sometime. I warn you that I may take a long time to update once I've gone past the stuff I've already written, as I'm on my GCSE year, and have to study. Okay?  
  
Oh, also, I don't own Harry, Sirius, James or anyone else. They all came from J.K.Rowlings head, not my own, I don't own anything, as sad as I am to announce.  
  
*~*~*  
  
"Are you sure this'll work?"  
  
"Trust me," Sirius said "I've looked it up just to make sure -not that I needed to anyway- but I recognised the rings when I saw them in my parents house, before I ran away. They just sort of seemed perfect to our cause!"  
  
"Cause?"  
  
"Mischief, Wormtail, mischief. Where have you been these last few years"  
  
"Oh, sorry" Peter shifted his eyes and feet a little, embarrassed at his incompetence.  
  
"Anyway, so, we-"  
  
"Wait a minute, Sirius, James, for those of us that haven't yet achieved the no. 1 and 2 best student -academically anyway- what are you going on about? I recognise the rings from somewhere my many light reading books-" Lupin sees Sirius and James suppress laughs, and lets out a little smile; Peter still looks confused, and smiles just to fit in, unsure of the joke yet "but I cant remember what exactly they do."  
  
"Time charm" said James with a smile, knowing how Lupin would continue.  
  
"Ohhh, oh, yes. Yes, the charm often used as the Time Turner. The coloured rings are a rarer form of the charm, but more accurate and easier for long time travel."  
  
"What did I tell you, Sirius, text book with arms!"  
  
"Yep," said Sirius, picking up a book with a large bookmark for Lupin to see.  
  
'TIME CHARM The Time Charm is an extremely complex charm involving the instillation of time travelling properties in an inanimate object. The Time-Turner, widely used in the early 1100s, is an hourglass in which the Time Charm is present. By turning the Time-Turner clockwise or counter clockwise, depending on travelling forward or backward, one is able to explore time and space.  
  
Colour-coded rings are also, though infrequently, instilled with Time Charms. Normally one ring is used to travel to a designated point in time, while another is used to return. Users of colour-coded rings are notorious for leaving the 'return ring' behind, thus finding themselves stuck in a time not their own forever, or until a new set of rings is wielded from quicksilver.'  
  
"Oh, no, I forgot the time, James, I said I'd remind you that you have a quidditch game against Slytherin to win us!"  
  
"Oh, don't worry, Wormtail, I will, I always do!"  
  
"Good luck, Prongs, I'll catch you up in a minute, let me just write a note to go with these, and put them under the lose floorboard in the dormitory"  
  
"Ok, then, Padfoot, I'll see you in the stands with Moony and Wormtail."  
  
"Yeah, bye then, see ya"  
  
Sirius watched them go, then got a quill and piece of parchment, wrote a quick note on the parchment, and took it and the rings up to his dormitory  
  
*~*~* 


	2. Meet Potter, James Potter

Nothing belongs to me, if it did, it would be my name over the front of all those books, and I'd be rich!

Enjoy!

*~*~*

"Well, well, well. Look who it is. Feeling brave, are you now, Potter. Or will you be spending another night in the hospital wing?"

"Oh, shut up, Malfoy."

"I can say what I want, Potter. Unlike you, I've never fallen off my broom!" 

Crabbe and Goyle sputter out a few laughs stupidly, highlighting the emptiness of the voids that resides in each of their fat little heads.

"What's that Weasley's riding? Why would anyone put a flying charm on a mouldy old log like that?"

"*Mock baby voice* Ahhh, too scared to face up to me? *Normal voice* I thought a trade mark Gryffindor was to be brave! Or was that before Weasel joined that joke you call a team?"

__

Weasley Is Our King.

~*~

Hermione, who had come out with Harry and Ron, had seen the Slytherins in the stands, and having had enough of the in classes, decided to turn back into the castle. After all, if her friends needed restraining from what the Slytherins might say, there was the whole team to do so. Hermione trudged unhappily back to the castle, knowing the outburst that would await her when Ron and Harry got back to the common room.

"Password?"

__

"Mimbulus Mimbletonia!"

"Correct. You may enter." The Fat Lady said as she swung off her hinges, revealing the entrance to the Gryffindor Common room. Hermione stepped inside, and immediately saw two people.

"Oh, Harry, what are you doing here? I thought you were at Quidditch practice."

"What did you call me?" Harry said, with a strange questioning look in his eyes, and turned to look at a very cute boy, with elegant dark hair that Hermione had never seen before.

"Um, who are you?" Harry asked

"Hermione?" she said, unsure of the question. _Did harry have amnesia?_

"Oh. Um. My name's James. James Potter, and this is my best friend, Sirius Black."

"But… What… no! Oh, my God, its true!!" Hermione said, looking closely at James, seeing that his eyes were hazel, and that Harry's characteristic lightening bolt scar was gone. Also, James's nose was slightly different. Longer, but it looked right. In fact, he looked slightly more charming than harry. _In fact, that very word may come in to it – charm!_

"Pardon me for interrupting this little…, um, well, pardon me for asking such a weird question, but _when_ is it?" said Sirius uncomfortably.

"Approximately twenty years in your future."

"How'd you know-"

"Let's just say we kinda know some people" Ron said, exchanging a glance with Hermione.

"So, who's this Harry?" said James, sitting on one of the common room sofas, Sirius sitting down a second later.

"Later, not really a good question to ask now."

"Oh, ok then" James said, disappointed.

Suddenly, three people come in, two boys and a girl. All three had red and gold Quidditch robes on. Two of them were almost identical, obviously identical twins. They had bright red hair and freckles, and a glint in their eyes that James and Sirius recognised. Between them was a very white looking girl, covered in blood. On second glance, she was only having a very bad nosebleed, and by the looks of the twins who had helped her in, they had something to do with it. Obviously not a fight they were responsible for, but a trick that had gone wrong, to judge by the way the twins were quietly arguing, muttering words like "where did it go, I thought you had it" and muttering colours, like purple and orange. The three of them went off up the stairs to, presumably, their own dormitory, and Sirius opened his mouth to question who they were, but Hermione beat him to it.

"The two boys are the Weasley twins, one of my best friends brothers. They are also your successors, the 'now' trouble makers. I'm sure you'll find their company both very fun and interesting, and I'm sure you'll come up with some very outrageous and extravagant plots. Now, I suggest that we go, cus if they're back, then harry and Ron, who is the twins brother, will be coming back too, and I think it would be best if you keep out of their way. Until later, anyway," she added, at the look on the two time travellers faces "boy, you two could be twins. Look, just go to the top dormitory on the boys side, ill catch you up there with a book or two, to see exactly _how_ you did this!"

The two were only just out of site, when Harry and Ron came in, muttering angrily.

"How was practice?"

"It was-" Harry began.

"Completely lousy" Ron finished off in a hollow voice, slumping into the sofa with Harry, exactly where James and Sirius had been.

So began the gloomy Quidditch talk.

*~*~*


	3. The boys figure out who 'Harry' is

First, thank you to inu lover, girlknight and Red Roses2-chan for reviewing. Do you guys know how to get italics right?

Secondly, whilst my name isn't Sapphire, my name also isn't J.K.Rowling, so I don't actually own any of this. As you might have realised by now, this fanfic is actually based largely on the 5th book, so unless you see my name on those, I don't actually own most of the plot line either.

*~*~*

Sirius and James went up to the top dormitory as the girl had said, but had no intention of staying there. They were inquisitive boys, and didn't like to be denied the freedom of knowledge. After all, hadn't they just travelled 20 years into the future?

Sirius sat down on the nearest bed. James, however, was looking curiously at one of the boys' trunks. Just below the lid, in one place, the bottom part was damaged, just one or two inches, but it was how the trunk was damaged that interested James. It seemed that the small area was simply _gone_. He could see into the trunk, and from even the dim light, he could see how the clothes inside were crumpled and compressed, as if there was a force from above pushing them down. James moved down to open the trunk and have a closer look.

"What are you doing?"

"Look at this," James said, pointing at the 'damaged' area

"But that's just like…"

"Like when I closed my own trunk, and some of the invisibility cloak was coming out the side!"

James had opened the trunk to reveal an invisibility cloak.

"Wow, that looks just like yours!"

"That's because it _is_ mine!" James said, picking it up.

"This is just weird!"

"But, how did it get here, and in this time"

"Look!" Sirius said, pointing to the initials on the trunk

"HP"

"Harry?"

"Potter?!?" said James with a curious smile. "Why else would he have an invisibility cloak, an object that is really rare? An invisibility cloak, that is actually yours!?!"

"Come on!!!" James said, rushing to the door, Sirius a few steps behind him, and they rushed down the stairs, pulling the cloak around them both, as if it was second nature.

They came into the common room and stopped dead.

There, sitting at one of the tables, were two boys. The first had a head of fiery red hair, obviously the twin's brother, Ron. The other looked exactly like James. From the back, Sirius and James could see that Harry had exactly the same hair- it stuck up at the back in the same way as James!

Sirius turned to took at James, and saw him sub-consciously raise his hand to his head, and put it too his hair from the back up, roughing it up.

As Sirius and James moved round to look at Harry from the front, James saw the first differences. A lightening bolt scar on his forehead. He also noticed that his nose was slightly different.

James leaned forward and gazed into Harry's eyes; not hazel, like his own, but a startling shade of green. A shade that James had only seen one other person with.

__

Was Harry related to Lily Evens? Was she his mum?

Harry and Ron were sitting working hard at homework, and by the look of it they had a lot.

Hermione moved over to the boys, away from her own table, which was covered in her own work, quite a lot more than the boys.

"Nearly done?" she said.

"No." the redhead answered back.

Hermione then made a few pointers to Ron's essay, and by the looks of the two boys, something she rarely did. She seemed to all the facts off by heart.

"Thanks" snarled Ron bitterly.

"Sorry, I only-"

"Yeah, well, if you've just come over here to criticise-"

"Ron-" Hermione said, fairly impatiently.

"I haven't got time to listen to a sermon, all right, Hermione, I'm up to my neck in it here-"

"No, look" she said, fairly annoyed, pointing at a window, where a handsome screech owl was waiting to be let in. After a few what seemed to be tedious comments about the owl's origin, they let it in and read the letter, which seemed to be a mile long. The redhead, Ron, seemed to be furious, but Harry tried to treat it like a joke, something that James and Sirius realised they would themselves, to comfort one of their friends. Or, well, they'd do anyway!

"Well, if you want to – er – what is it? Oh, yeah – "sever ties" with me, I swear I won't get violent!"

At this remark, James tried to move round to the back of Ron to read the letter himself, but by the time he had nudged Sirius, Ron was already ripping up the letter.

"He is-" rip "the world's-" rip "biggest-" rip "_git_!"

Sirius and James looked at each other; eyebrows raised and smirks in their smiles. 

"Come on, we've got to get this finished sometime before dawn" Ron said, referring to his essay.

"Oh, give them here" Hermione said, both abruptly and oddly, and Sirius and James felt sure that her helping them out did not happen on a regular basis. In fact, she was sounding a lot like Lupin!

"What!"

"Give them to me, I'll look through them and correct them"

"Are you serious? Ah, Hermione, you're a life saver! What can I -?"

"What you can say is, "we promise never to leave our homework this late again." " 

James and Sirius smirked even more. She was turning out exactly like Lupin.


	4. What Hermione neglected to say

Thanks to weaselygurl and everyone else who has reviewed!

I don't own anything, if I say I do, that means I've had too much to drink in this little new years day celebration, so ignore me!!! Just kidding! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

*~*~*

A little later, Hermione was still going over the essays, and everyone apart from her, Ron and Harry had disappeared up to their dormitories. 

"Ok, write that down. Then add the conclusion I've given you."

"Hermione, you are honestly the most wonderful person I've ever met! And if I'm ever rude to you again-"

"- I'll know you're back to normal! Harry, your is ok except for this bit at the end, I think you must have misheard professor Sinistra, Europa's covered in ice, not mice- Harry?" Hermione said, realising that his attention was not on her, but completely distracted by the fireplace.

"Er – Harry, why are you down there?"

"Because I've just seen Sirius's head in the fire"

"What!!!" Sirius and James said at the same time, almost blowing their cover. If it weren't for the fact that Hermione had just talked at the same time, they would have been discovered.

"Sirius's head? You mean, like when he wanted to talk to you during the Triwizard Tournament-?" Sirius and James looked at each other as Hermione carried on. _Triwizard Tournament?_ Wow! 

"-But he wouldn't do that now, it would be too- _Sirius!_"

James and the young Sirius were given quite a shock. A man with long, shoulder length dark hair was grinning at them from the flames. Apparently they weren't the only ones given a shock; Hermione gasped, and Ron dropped his quill and jumped about a foot into the air. Harry seemed to be the only one comfortable with this, as he had crawled down to the fireplace to talk to Sirius better.

"I was starting to think that you'd got to bed before everyone else had disappeared. I've been checking every hour."

"You've been popping into the fire every hour?" Harry repeated, smile on his face, and James saw the first similarities between their personalities, and began to smile too.

"Just for a few seconds to check if the coast was clear." And then Sirius went into how a first year had seen him, but he had probably looked nothing more than an oddly shaped log. James and Sirius were pleased that the older version of him had yet to loose his daring and plain idiocy. Hermione had added her usual disapproval, and they seemed to be getting on until the topic of conversation had turned to Harry's previous letter.

"You didn't say you'd written to Sirius!"

"I forgot!" and then the conversation had moved to harry concealing the information in the letter, and the uselessness of codes. Sirius then went on to talk about Harry's scar, which neither James nor Sirius seemed to understand- why talk about something so trivial as a scar? What is so special about it, and why had Hermione not told them about its importance. Also, why was harry talking to Sirius about such things that would usually be said to a father, and harry had not mentioned James. _Why?_

"So you don't think it had anything to do with Umbrige touching me when I was in detention with her?" James mentally congratulated Harry on hearing about him in detention, and Sirius smiled.

"I doubt it, I know her by reputation, and I'm sure she's no Death Eater-"

"She's foul enough to be one!" Harry interjected darkly, subconsciously flexing his fist, which James saw had "I must not tell lies" in pearly white writing, etched into his skin. Quite a severe punishment.

"Yes, but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. I know she's a nasty piece of work, though – you should hear Remus talk about her!"

"Does Lupin know her?"

Sirius and James gave a jolt. _You should hear Remus talk about her_. Moony is alive and is still in good contact with Lupin! And Harry, Ron and Hermione knew him, enough to enquire about him, anyway, even if they didn't know about his secret. That seemed to cheer the two of them up a bit.

"No, but she drafted a bit of anti-werewolf legislation that prevents him from getting a job."

So they did know, and they still liked him, still respected him, treated him like a man, not a monster. That took guts, and understanding. James felt proud of Harry, and the friends he had.

"What's she got against werewolves?" Hermione said, angrily, and Sirius nodded, while James said under his breath, so no-one could hear "you go, girl!"

"Scared of them, I expect. Apparently, she loathes part-humans; she campaigned to have merpeople rounded up and tagged last year, too. Imagine wasting your time and energy persecuting merpeople when there are little toerags like Kreacher on the loose!" and the school boy Sirius added "exactly!", then wondered why his older self had commented on him. _Hadn't he put that home behind him?_ Why was he bringing it up, unless he had contact with him later on, and why do that? 

Hermione tried to defend Kreacher, but Sirius didn't give her much of a chance.

"So what's Umbridge's lessons like? Is she training you to kill all half-breeds?"

"No!" said Harry bitterly

"All we do is read from the stupid textbook."

"Ah, well, that figures." And Sirius went on to talk about how Dumbledores sources said that the minister of magic thought that he was trying to gather an army to revolt against him, which the younger Sirius found as meaning that the minister was very dumb, and wasn't going to remain in that position for long, which James agreed with in a whisper. The topic of conversation turned to the missing Hagrid, which Harry, Ron and Hermione seemed very concerned about, and James was with them. Hagrid was very big, it was rumoured that he was half-giant, but he was the compete opposite on the inside, he was a soft, cuddly teddy bear.

"When's your next Hogsmeade weekend, anyway? I was thinking, we got away with the dog disguise at the station, didn't we? I thought I could-"

"NO!" Harry and Hermione said, loudly, startling James and Sirius. They wouldn't have ever said no. The trio continued to argue with Sirius about his near escape, and being caught, so Sirius had to give in.

"All right, all right, I've got the point. Just an idea, thought you might like to get together" Sirius said gloomily.

"I would, but I just don't want you chucked back in Azkaban!"

There was a pause. In the young Sirius's head, the words kept reverberating round and round. _"Chucked back into Azkaban?" they didn't put people in Azkaban just for steeling a loaf of bread_. 

"You're less like your father than I thought." Sirius said, his voice cold enough to freeze. "The risk would've been what made it fun for James."

James froze.

"Look-"

"Well id better get going, I can hear Kreacher coming down the stairs. I'll write to tell you a time I can make it back into the fire, them, shall I? If you can stand to risk it?"

Sirius's head disappeared from the fire, taking with it both of the time travellers' stomachs.

Harry got up angrily from the floor, kicked the mantle piece, stubbed his toe, cursed, then with a little goodbye, and went up the stairs to his dormitory. Ron followed, saying that he'd better get some sleep tonight, and that he would try to calm Harry down.

Hermione was the only visible person left. When a voice spoke from behind her, she jumped.

"Azkaban? Your friend, Harry, he said that he didn't want to see me thrown back into… Azkaban?"

"Umm" Hermione said worried. She had not expected the truth to come out like that.

"Well, what did I do? They don't put people in there for trivial things." His voice was very raspy, as though he was trying to suppress a huge amount of emotion, or tears.

"You're not telling us the truth, Hermione. Sirius was in Azkaban. He refereed to me in the past tense. The way you would refer about a dead person. What happened, Hermione? Its connected, I know it is, everything between the two of us is connected! What is going on? Tell us!" James cried desperately, tears starting to creep down his face as he moved to lower himself down into one of the sofas. He had never cried before, not in front of anyone, but this was different. He had just been told he was going to die. Sirius had been told he would go to the most horrible, hellish place imaginable. Both of them wished they hadn't ever come down from the dormitory. Both of them wished they had never came to this time. It had only been some fun, a laugh, nothing more. They didn't want to be told their nightmare futures.

*~*~*


	5. Padfoot and Prongs find out the truth

Thank you so much to those of you who reviewed, I don't know what I'd do without you!!! And that's- Shimmergloom, samyjoc, taniita, dweem-angel and purpleanimefreek08. By the way, Shimmergloom, in a later chapter, Padfoot and Prongs will meet older Sirius, but I wont tell you yet!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! Like in every chapter, I don't own anything, so don't sue me!  
  
*~*~*  
  
"I think the two of you had better sit down and brace your selves, this isn't going to be easy." Hermione said, directing the first part to Sirius, who still stood standing beside his best friend.  
  
"Oh, I don't know really where to begin. I can say that Sirius being in Azkaban isn't directly what happened to you later, but he was blamed for something that contributed to it later."  
  
Hermione paused, considering what to say. She started again, addressing the two boys, not just Sirius.  
  
"Harry is actually famous. Since he was a baby." She took a deep breath. "James, you were married to Lily. When Harry was a year old, Voldemort came to your house, and, he-, um, he killed you and Lily. He tried to kill Harry, too, but he couldn't, the curse rebounded upon him. Voldemort has been gone for 14 years."  
  
James was startled at the news. He just sat there, his mouth slightly open, his eyes staring at Hermione. Sirius was the first to speak up.  
  
"But that's not all of it. Where do I come in?"  
  
"I never said-"  
  
"We are always together on everything, I'm involved"  
  
Hermione paused again, but then continued, after seeing Sirius's expression urge her on.  
  
"I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tell you this, er, um" she said, realising her wording.  
  
"what I mean is, I think I've already told you too much anyway, but I suppose we could sort something out before you go back to your time. What?" Hermione added, looking at the boys' puzzles faces. "Oh, I mean, you can't go back, knowing so much of the future."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"For example, you can't go back knowing your going to marry Lily, you might change time, and end up not even having Harry, and then Voldemort isn't defeated. Or, you could have survived the attack yourselves, and harry wouldn't be famous. Or, you-"  
  
"Em, Hermione, we get the picture, we cant go back knowing anything. A simple memory spell would fix that, wouldn't it?"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"Oh, at least tell Sirius why he's in Azkaban!"  
  
Hermione huffed, admitting defeat, and continued on with the story.  
  
"For some reason, Voldemort was after you, and your family. You had performed the fidelius charm, with Sirius as your secrete keeper. Or, that is what everybody thought. You knew that there was a spy in your inner circle, so you changed secrete keepers at the last moment. I am only telling you what I was told a couple of years ago," she added, at the looks on the boys' faces- excitement, mingles with disbelief. "You chose Peter as the secrete keeper, or, well, Sirius persuaded you."  
  
"Why would I chose to persuade him to use Peter, instead of me? I mean, why Peter?"  
  
"I think you thought it would be a bluff, using someone as weak as him, when Voldemort would be certain that you had been the secrete keeper."  
  
She took a deep breath and then carried on.  
  
"It was Peter who told him, who betrayed you. I believe that after seeing your house in ruins, you went after him to confront him. He shouted out how you had betrayed the Potters, and then blew up the street with his wand behind him, as you moved to curse him yourself. Peter killed 12 muggles, and added himself to the list, as he disappeared, in his animagus form, leaving behind his right index finger-" The boys flinched "-as proof of his death."  
  
There was a minute of stunned silence, then-  
  
"Why that little spineless rodent. How could he?" Sirius said threateningly at Hermione  
  
"Padfoot, calm yourself, your not the only one staggered by the news. Don't kill the messenger. In fact, Hermione has told us what not a lot of people would be able to tell, you should be thanking her." James said, and Hermione felt guilty, that he was defending her when she had delivered some not too desirable news.  
  
"Thanks, James, you are really Harry's Dad!"  
  
James seemed a bit surprised at the statement "um, yes, thanks. That Harry seems almost exactly like me, we could be twins, if you didn't know better!"  
  
And Hermione chuckled too. It seemed that the two boys' took the news better than she thought. She still had some things nagging her.  
  
"How did you get Harry's, er, your, invisibility cloak? How did you know where it was? Oh, you didn't go rummaging in peoples trunks, did you?" she said, disapprovingly  
  
James and Sirius laughed at her statement. "No! There was a bit of the cloak that was coming out the side of his trunk. It's quite a weird affect, actually! Looks like part of the trunk is just missing, not i there /i! It happened to me not long back." Then, remembering that he and his best friend had travelled 20 years, added, "you know what I mean!"  
  
"Yeah, I think I do! So where are you going to sleep?" Hermione said, changing the subject, before the boys' stopped laughing and remembered the information she had just given them.  
  
"Oh, we know a place, used it before, for different things. Oh, Sirius, remember when." but he stopped at Sirius's slightly embarrassed look. "Oh, well, it was funny," Sirius nudged him. "I know exactly where it is, I just wish we had the map." James said, trailing off, deep in thought.  
  
"Map?"  
  
"Oh, don't worry, it doesn't matter, it would just make things easier, you know, not bumping into professors or an annoying poltergeist. But, I suppose we have the cloak, its not like they would actually see us, I just wish Filch hadn't taken it, that's all." James added, answering Hermione's questioning stare.  
  
"Yes, well, Filch takes a lot of thinks away from students, most of them are things they shouldn't have" Hermione said to the two boys' as they moved their way to the common room door.  
  
"By the way, you're going to need the password. Its Mimbulus Mimbletonia!" She added, as they opened the portrait door, and disappeared under the cloak.  
  
"Oh, well, I guess its time for me to go to bed" Hermione said quietly to herself, and made her way up the stairs to her dormitory.  
  
*~*~* 


	6. Discussing grades and Divination class

I've updated this chapter. Its got the end on it. If you want to find it, press 'Ctrl' and 'F' on your keyboard at the same time, and put * into the box that says 'Find What'.

Update thanks to: Nevtassere, I like time travel fics, do you know any other good ones?, Foxy Bon Bon, thanks so much!, Feathered hair, I'll try to write more, thanks, just goofy, ill update as soon as I can, but it might be tomorrow or the day after, to saxistwriterchick, thanks!

Thanks to inu lover, for reviewing 3 more times!, to Tauraman, happy new year to you too, to Red Roses2-chan again, I'd be pleased to read your fic, to girlknight, thanks!, to Dk Lili, thanks as well, to samyjoc, thanks so much, your making me blush!, and a large thanks to yesim@-flamesofeternaldarkness, for reviewing 3 times, and telling me how to get italics. 

Thanks to all my reviewers, you guys are the best!

*~*~*

James woke up in a room with two beds. At first, he had no idea where he was, and it took a few moments to remember- Hogwarts, 20 years in the future, The Emergency Room.

Sirius meanwhile was up and pacing to and throw at the foot of the beds, obviously deep in thought.

"Are you alright, Sirius? You seem a bit troubled, and after last night, no wonder." He hung his head.

"I'm sorry, it's just a lot to take in. and you're the one who's suppost to do this, after all, you're the one that's just been told…" he shrugged his shoulders and smiled apologetically.

"Don't worry, Padfoot, its ok. I still have a fairly long time to go, I get to marry Lily, and be with my baby son, and…"his voice died in his throat Sirius stopped pacing and came down to sit beside him, his hand on his back to comfort him.

"You know what, Prongs, we need to forget this. I mean, not completely" he added, at James's look, "what I mean is we need to get out minds off it. We have had all night to dwell on it, and I know you were up all night. I could hear you, tossing and turning all the time, and see your eyes, staring up wards!" he added with a laugh, and James replied "If you remember me doing this all night, than you never went to sleep, too. Until it was about 3 in the morning."

Sirius grinned. "Come on, let's hang around with Harry and his friends, no doubt they'd be an amusing group, him being your son. And, judging by the fact that they were talking to an escaped convict from Azkaban, using floo powder in the fire, and unless the rules have changed considerably since we were here, id have to say that they have as much care for the rules as we do. Did. Whatever! Let's go, I'm bored!"

"You're always bored!" James said, laughing.

They ate a couple of sandwiches that were on a table that appeared out of nowhere as soon as they realised that they were hungry.

They came out of the room, James closing the brightly polished door, and turned and saw the tapestry on the wall opposite. A few moth eaten trolls holding clubs turned away from a small, shrunken man, covered in bruises and supporting a bloody nose and black eye, to watch the two boys come out of the room, and then they disappear into thin air, and then the trolls, as though nothing happened turned back to club Barnabas the Barmy some more. 

"Who would ever want to see trolls do ballet anyway?" Sirius asked as they moved along the corridor under the invisibility cloak towards the great hall, as they hoped where Harry and his friends would still be.

They carefully made their way down towards the hall, and saw Harry, Ron and Hermione come out into the Entrance Hall, Ron carrying a newspaper clutched in his hand, as the three of them seemed to be discussing an article they had read in it.

"How on earth can they say those things about her? _' She's been an immediate success… _' who are they kidding?" the redhead complained loudly.

"I just can't believe that she now has the power to inspect our classes. At least we know how we were landed with her." Harry said, bitterly.

"I still can't believe they named names. _Eccentric decisions_? Lupin, Hagrid, Moody? Werewolf,_ half_ giant,_ delusional? _" Hermione broke off, fuming.

James and Sirius glanced at each other._ It was printed that Remus was a werewolf?_

Sirius spoke up. "For some reason, I'm not loving this future."

"Like you said. Let's follow them. No doubt there will be amusing snide remarks about their professors or something to cheer themselves up."

They followed the group as they made their way across the great castle, pausing at the Gryffindor common room and dormitories, as Ron took his paper up to his trunk, and the three of them collected their bags for the next lesson, and taking a very long time to do so.

"Oh, come on, bet a move on, we're going to be late. You don't want Binns to add more homework on to the load you've already got, do you?" Hermione huffed, and upon hearing the professor's name, James said quietly to Sirius, "Binns? I would have thought that old bore would have croaked by now. Or it could be a relative- son, daughter, perhaps?"

"Nah, the fool was too boring to have a family, I don't know how he would have ever attracted a woman. The rate he goes, he would have sent her to sleep at the dinner table on their first date, going on about the goblin rebellions!"

James chuckled, and the two of them slipped into the classroom behind Harry and his friends. Sirius noticed the lack of the professor as they took up two unoccupied seats at the back of the class, and said "I don't think we were the only late ones here!" as James helped him carefully move a seat closer to the other one, so they could sit comfortably under the cloak with out being seen. James grinned, but soon stopped, as the professor had just come into the classroom. Through the blackboard. He was the very same professor Binns, but an obvious ghost, and both Sirius and James felt their jaws drop.

"Of course, knowing him, he probably got up to teach, and left his body behind." Sirius said, correcting his previous statement, still stunned at the state of the teacher in front of them. However, they didn't stay stunned for long. They soon found themselves, like the rest of the class, drifting off to sleep. They woke up to the sound of the bell ringing, signalling the end of the lesson, and the beginning of the new one.

They managed to slip out the room as the class stampeded for the door, and it seemed to be a miracle that they managed to get out unnoticed. The two followed Harry and his friends down the castle, and went further and further down till the reached the dungeons, and lined up quietly out side one. They were quickly let into the classroom, and Sirius saw that the teacher was handing out graded homework, and with a sneer, handed Harry back his work. In the corner was a big scratchy 'D', for dreadful. Sirius looked menacingly at the teacher (even though they couldn't be seen under the cloak) to see who it was. He was in for a nasty surprise. Snape. As greasy haired and hook nosed as ever, the much older Snape than Sirius or James remembered loomed over his students like some animal or bird of prey, choosing which unfortunate student to pounce on.

He passed a large, rosy faced boy, who when he caught sight of the professor, squeaked, and accidentally pushed his ink bottle onto the floor, and ducked down under his desk with a terrified expression on his face. Hermione, who had just entered the class, ducked down beside the boy, and whispered "" and "reparo" which made the ink disappear and the broke glass repair itself, and shot a comforting smile at the boy before standing back up to get to her place, looking away from Snape's menacing glare at her for helping him out. The boy took another inkbottle out of his bag (it seemed he carried spares, knowing that this sort of thing always happened) and got up to his desk to see that Snape had moved on handing out the homework, but then looked down to see his own. He and Harry were the only students to receive a 'D'.

"I have awarded you the grades you would have received if you presented this work in you OWL," Snape said, with a definite smirk in his voice, and Sirius could feel James's fists clench, and Sirius couldn't blame him. The amount of power Snape had as a teacher was a lot more than a weak and weird bullied student. 

James looked around the class, and saw that the almost all of the red and gold clad students had received marks varying from a P/D to A/P. Hermione managed to receive a straight A, but James had the sneak feeling that she should have received an O. The green and silver clad students had received marks from E/A to O/E. 

Snape moved to the front of the room. 

"The general standard of this homework was abysmal." Snape started again, talking specifically to the Gryffindors. "Most of you would have failed had this been your examination. I expect to see a great deal more effort for this weeks essay on venom antidotes, or I shall have to start giving detentions to the dunces who get a 'D'."

"Some people got a 'D'?" a white haired boy sniggered, in a whisper that carried around the room. The boy with the white blond hair had received an 'O', but James thought a grade like a 'P' would suit him better, reading the opening paragraphs. The boy looked very familiar to James, and he pointed him out to Sirius- "That kid, he looks a lot like Lucius Malfoy. His son, perhaps?" 

"Yeah, looks like."

"Do you think he has inherited his attitude?"

"Definitely."

Hermione was trying to see what Harry had received for his homework. He realised this fact, and slipped his essay into his bag before she could see the 'D'. Sirius had the suspicion that it wasn't over though, as Hermione turned back to her own paper with a little huff of disappointment, and the greasy haired menace put the potion instructions on the blackboard.

The students got started on the potion, and already the Snape-terrified clumsy boy had added the wrong ingredient, but neither Sirius nor James could blame him. Snape delighted in keeping a close eye on him (as well as commenting on all the slight faults of the Gryffindors potions), and whenever Snape was around the boy, Neville, seemed to get 10 times as clumsy as when he wasn't. 

Finally, the bell rang again, and Sirius, James and the rest of the class were freed from Snape and his dungeon. Sirius was still shocked at the identity of the potions teacher, but couldn't help smiling when his suspicions turned out correct, as Hermione started to talk about the graded homework, an obvious ploy to find out what her two friends had received. She tried playing them all the way down to the great hall, but the two boys weren't giving in that easily. Sirius knew she would win, though, once you got going, all you had to do was keep going until the other person just gives in. it was an approach he, James and Remus had used a number of times.

"Obviously, I would have been thrilled if I'd got an 'O'"

"Hermione," Ron snapped suddenly, "if you want to know what grades we got, ask."

Hermione seemed a bit surprised at his outburst, as she stuttered-

"I didn't- I didn't mean- well, if you want to tell me-"

"I got a 'P', happy?" Ron said, whilst ladling soup into his bowl, almost as if trying to ignore her would make the situation go away quicker.

"That's nothing to be ashamed of," said one of the two twins, who had come in with the nosebleed girl the day before. He, his twin and another boy that James not Sirius hadn't seen before came down to sit at the table beside them. "Nothing wrong with a good healthy 'P'"

"But doesn't 'P' stand for…" Hermione said, a confused look on her face.

"Poor, yeah," said the twins friend. "Still, better than a 'D', isn't it? 'Dreadful'"

James felt a flair of anger towards the boy, and had to remind himself a few seconds later that he had no idea what Harry had received, he was just trying to cheer up his friend, like he, James, would do.

Harry went into a fake coughing fit, and was disappointed to find when he stopped, that Hermione was_ still_ going on about OWL grades, the twins helping her out.

"So the top grades 'O', for 'Outstanding', then there's 'A'-"

"No, 'E'" one of the twins corrected, "'E' for Exceeds Expectations'. And I always thought that Fred and I should have got 'E's in everything, because we exceeded expectations just by turning up for the exams!"

James gave one of the twins a small kick in the shins when he mentioned 'D', but luckily he must have thought that it was from his twin, as he then went on to explain to his eager listeners about the lowest (and non existent) grade 'T', apparently for 'Troll'

The twin James kicked went on to ask something about inspections, and it was only when he mentioned the word "Umbridge" (and not to mention the little kick from Sirius that came with it) that he grew interested, and remembered the complaints about Umbridge earlier.

James and Sirius followed (yet again!) Harry and his friends to their next lesson, who they guessed was taught by someone called "Trelawney", after the kicked twin had graded her a 'T'.

They got up to the crowded landing, and a minute later the trap door decided to open, for no reason at all for staying closed for longer than it had to. Sirius start to think that this 'Trelawney' was a bit loony, and was more than just a bit aggravated at the distance to the classroom. He got even more aggravated when he realised that they would have to go up the ladder one at a time, meaning that one of them would be visible.

Both James and Sirius likes risks, but being in an unknown future, where one of them was dead etc. well, they were a bit more cautious than usual.

Once the class had gone up, James walked forwards, leaving Sirius to slip out and become visible again – he gave a big stretch, his hands high above his head, enjoying the quick break from being cramped under the cloak all morning. Even at James's annoyed whisper of "Padfoot, come on!", Sirius was reluctant to go up. He just waited there, enjoying himself, and the little fury that James was getting into. But then he heard footsteps, and he hurriedly started to climb the ladder, as quietly as possible. As he got to the top, James put the cloak around him again, and he turned to look at the teacher. His jaw dropped again.

She was an insect, looked like a stick insect or something. Wearing many shawls, and twice as many bracelets, Trelawney seemed to also hide behind huge glasses, that magnified her eyes at least 10 times in Sirius's opinion. He thought that someone might have tried to transfigure, and St. Mungos had never found a cure!

Sirius had to stuff a wedge of robes into his mouth to stop him from laughing so loudly, and had to lean against James to stop him from overbalancing and rolling around the floor in laughter too. He could tell what she was all about. All 'mystic' and spooky, probably giving out predictions at the end of every sentence. 

All of a sudden, the two boys were startled by the noisy clattering of the trap door behind them, and the rather unsuccessful attempt of a toad like woman to enter the class/tea room with some semblance of authority or sanity.

James found it rather amusing to have two animal like teachers in the room at once, as it looked like the perfect habitat with its closed obscured windows and misty humidity to it for a giant stick-insect and toad to feel right at home in.

Toad-woman spoke up, a somehow sickly smile on her face that seemed to send fear into the heart of the other woman, an amusing sight for the two invisible boys.

"Good afternoon, professor Trelawney. You received my mote, I trust? Giving the time and date of your inspection?"

The addressed teacher nodded curtly and continued handing out the books, although with a noticeable quiver now. Toad-woman just pulled a chair back behind the teachers, the same smile pasted on her face.

In attempt to calm herself, Trelawney re-adjusted her shawls and addressed the class with a voice that seemed to shake slightly less than she was, but shaking al the same.

"We shall be continuing our study of prophetic dreams today…"

"Groan!" whispered Sirius.

"Oh, don't say that. Never underestimate how amusing prophetic dreams can be."

With a smile, he indicated to the table where his son and red-haired friend were. They could just about pick up the conversation that they were having.

"Think of a dream quick, [something, something] old toad [something, something]"

"I did it last time"

"[Something] Let's say I dreamed I was… drowning Snape in my cauldron."

The first bit of the reply became muffled as Ron turned back to his book, but the second part was audible. "…in the subject. Would that be "drowning", "cauldron", or "Snape"?"

"It doesn't matter, pick any of them."

*"You know, I'm starting to like this place!" James said, shaking his head at his son's wishful thinking.

~*~

The stick-insect started to wonder round the classroom, the toad not far behind. Evidentally she got bored of being in Trelawney's shadow, and so started to question her. James didn't pay much attention to that, except when he caught a bit of Toad-Woman's questioning of Trelawney's family tree.

"These things often skip- er- three generations…"

"Three's a magic number!" James said under his breath.

The increasingly vulture like woman proceeded in asking the other for a prediction, which was reluctantly given after a plain down right refusal. It was all the two boys could do to stop themselves laughing and giving themselves away, either by the sound, or by them knocking someone's table as they nearly collapsed onto the floor. They were promptly brought back to reality when Trelawney rounded on the nearest person and demanded to see his dream diary, that person being Harry.

The rest of the lesson involved how each and every dream foretold Harry's early and painful death, though, over half the time travellers observed were about the 'grim'. A few dreams even foretold being trampled to death by deer, which James angrily corrected as being a stag, and that she was just seeing what fun he and Padfoot would be up to.

"Now, you see where you dreamt of eating porridge, your mind must became fixated on the illusion of the thick liquid, which it viewed on as becoming encased in it, drowning in something you cant be free from. I'm sorry, its another death omen, you will drown, probably in the morning, around breakfast time."

"In a bowl full of porridge?"

"Yes. Now, where you saw your self the next night, tying up your shoe laces, that meant that…"

It went on and on. James and Sirius were s furious by the end of the lesson that they decided to pay both Trelawney and Umbridge back, though Sirius executed his plan of kicking Trelawney in the shins before it was discussed much. The two left the class with Trelawney still hopping about on one foot, trying to figure out just how she had hit her shins when the nearest table was a metre away, or whether she was going mad or not. It was apparent that Umbridge obviously did.

*~*~*

I've updated this chapter. Its got the end on it. If you want to find it, press 'Ctrl' and 'F' on your keyboard, and put * into the box that says 'Find What'.


	7. The Prank

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, but I'm sorry that I don't have time to write thanks out individually, but you know who you are, so thank you.

*~*~*

Professor Umbridge sat in her office, surveying the pieces of parchment in her hand. They were the products of another night's detention with the Potter boy, and it still wasn't working on him. She chucked the bloody parchments into the roaring fire and thought to herself. 

It had been two days since the boy had last spoken up in her class, frustrated at her quite reasonable little talk with his know-it-all friend. Nothing seemed to work with him; he was as disruptive as he ever was, spreading his poisonous rumours and lies around the school. He had to be stopped, to be punished, but Umbridges punishments didn't seem to be having much effect on him. Each night she chucked the hours worth of bloody parchment into her fire, so they couldn't be used for dark purposes, and each night she knew she would be doing the exact same thing in 20 hours time.

She exited her office, still deep in thought, and locked the door. She had walked but 5 paces when she stopped, turned around and walked back to her office, unlocked it, and entered, her beady eyes darting around for anything suspicious.

James and Sirius stood under James' cloak, as silent as possible. The Toad-Woman sitting at her desk threw the parchment she was holding into the fire, and walked to the door, locking it behind her. Some abnormally black flames were dancing around the bloody handwriting of James' son, giving the letters an eerie glow, making them stand out. James was so absorbed in them that he stood there, unblinking, for 5 seconds straight. That was until Sirius gave him a painful nudge with his elbow. A soft "ouch" was emitted from James' mouth.

They started to walk round the room slowly under the cloak, knowing that if any ghost were to pass into the room they would be sold out, having had the unpleasant experience a couple of years ago with the Bloody Barren. Or, well, about 22 years ago.

They had just figured out where to put the teachers little present, when there was a scratching from the door.

The boys froze, like a stag (and a dog) caught in the headlights of a car.

The teacher had returned to the classroom, her eyes darting round the room. Sirius gave out a tiny whimper. Her eyes zeroed in on the space they were occupying. One ugly hand moved out, trying to feel through thin air, moving towards them.

James and Sirius were panicked. More panicked than they would normally be in that type of situation normally. In fact, normally, they wouldn't have been panicked. Normally around school, everyone knew they were pranksters, and knew if there was a prank, it was them, so being caught didn't really matter. But this was different. _They were in a different time._ No one knew they were there, no one had been at the centre of a Padfoot and Prongs Prank TM for twenty years. And besides, they had seen the Toad in action, and knew how stern she was, and now non-nonsense she was. It wasn't like anything they'd ever faced before.

Which is why Sirius accidentally fired the explosion, which was to be at the centre of the grand prank.

It was a creation of their own, they knew by heart how to make it, so at the opportunity of a prank, Sirius had whipped one up. A Safe Explosion, as it was known to the Marauders. It would create an explosion that wouldn't hurt any human or animals, or _really_ destroy any important parchments, but would pretty much wreck a classroom. There were now scorch marks on the walls, and several parchments still on fire, but they wouldn't burn, it was all part of the illusion.

James sprang from the cloak, and darted to the door, yanking it open. He ran down the hall, Umbridge in hot pursuit, leaving Sirius alone in the devastated classroom under the cloak. He smiled to himself, and muttered the counter curse to the explosion, the room returning to normal. He could have left the room the way it was, and have it return to normal when the illusion wore off, but he thought that returning it now would be better. It would create the added bonus of having Umbrigde running round the school, telling everyone she knew that her office had been blown up, only to have everyone find that she was obviously crazy.

He left the room happy, in knowledge that even though the prank didn't go as planned, that it was a success. James would get out of trouble, he'd find a hiding place long before he'd get caught. After all, who knew the castle better then Padfoot or Prongs?

It was the next Defence lesson, and Harry had been hauled up to the teachers desk. He had just been given yet _another_ weeks worth of detentions for _blowing up a teachers office_, as it was written on the detention slip. 

Harry couldn't believe it. Now the old bag was creating excuses just to put him in detention. It wasn't fair, but like he said before to Hermione and Ron, he couldn't complain, so he just accepted the punishment and moved on, forgetting anything abnormal about the situation of it.

*~*~*

Which is why it isn't written in the book, cus the book is all in Harry's POV, following him around. If he finds something not unusual, he wouldn't think more of it, and so not written in the book!

I'm afraid that I'm having exams for the next two weeks, so I wont be able to write this full time. I will try to have a new chapter up for you at the weekend, but don't count on it. They are important, and so I must put my efforts into them.

THE STORY IS NOT FINISHED, AND IS NOT ABANDONED, but it is on hold for two weeks.


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